Man s underwear



Aug- 8, 1933- J. K. HEYMAN ET AL MAN S UNDERWEAR Original Filed July 11,1931 2 Sheets-Sheet l 1933- J. K. HEYMAN ET AL Re. 18,914

MAN'S UNDERWEAR 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Original Filed July 11, 1931 f den/Z01Reissue! Aug. 8, 1933 Re. l8,9l4

PATENT OFFICE IAKS lmnnwnan looephllleymamchieago,

Weasel, Iiehigan Reliance Ilka-MIME City,Ind.,

company lll.,acorporationoflllinoia Original No. 1,845,749, datedFebruary Serial No. 550,056, July 11, 19:1. for Ids-e December 3., 1932.Serial scat... ((12-224) Our invention relates to men's underwear, andmore particularly to the type of man's athletic underwear generallydesignated as shorts or track pants. Our invention is with an improvedconstruction of continuous facing for the fly opening whereby thegarment is better adapted to withstand certain classes of strains whichwe have found to be the most frequent cause of athleticshortstearingatthecrotchoftheflyopening.

We have found, contrary to general belief, thatstrainswhichresultintearingatthecrotchof the fly opening are notparallel with the facing and therefore cannot be successfully borne by amere continuous facing. Nor does the tearing strain in question comefrom such an extreme movement by the wearer as exemplified by kicking afootball, for that produces merely a strain across the crotch of thegarment as a whole, not the crotch of the fly opening. We have foundthatthetearing strainupon the crotchof thefly opening comes when theshort is dropped to the region of the. knee, and the knee-to-knee strainis carried along a linewhich then becomes practically a straightlinefrom the left hip through and across the crotch of the fly openingto the right hip point. This strain is not parallel with the facing.Neither is it at right angles to the facing. It comes at a substantialangle to the facing and intersects the facing at the fold or crotch ofthe fly, whereby the facing at the crotch has to carry the strainobliquely from one front leg piece to the other front leg piece.

The strain must be transferred obliquely from one side piece on to thefacing, carried by the facing obliquely across the crotch point of thefly, and re-transferred on to the body of the goodsall withoutlocalizing the strain on any stitching sufficiently to result in tearingof the goods or stitching. Our fly facing construction is peculiarlyadapted to take this strain.

Another feature of our invention in connection with our continuousfacing construction for the fly opening is the dropping of the crotch ofthe fly opening down as far as possible toward the crotch of the garmentitself, whereby the angle between the line of the facing and the line ofthe strain in question will be greater, thereby further minimizing thetendency to tear the goods or stitching in transferring the strain fromthe body piece to the facing and again on tothe other body piece.

These and further objects, features and advantages are set forth in thefollowing description of a preferred embodiment of our invention, asillustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein Pig. 1 is a front viewof the garment as it would appear laid flat upon a table with the crotchof the garment exposed;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary front view of the right half of the garmentshowing particularly the body piece forming the front of the right leg,as it appears when laid flat and smooth;

Fig. 3 is a corresponding view to show the left l y; 7

Fig. 4 is a somewhat tic vertical section taken on the line 4-4 alongthe fly;

Fig. 5 is a somewhat tic plan section taken along the line 5-5 of Figs.1 and 4; and

Fig. 6 is a front view of the shorts with the fly fully extended andshowing the crom-the-flyfacing strain which our construction is designedto resist.

The shorts here shown are formed of two major pieces 10 and 11 formingboth the front and back sides of the left and right legs respectivelyand reinforced at their tops by a crescent shaped waist band 12. Thepieces 10 and 11 are joined by a seam 13 from the waist down to thecrotch 14 of the garment. Below the crotch 14 the two edges of theforward and rear edges of the left piece 10 are stitched together by aninseam 15 to form the leg. The same is true of the left piece 11. On thefront side, and above the crotch 14 of the garment, the sides wand 11are left open to form a fly opening 16, except for a short distancebetween the crotch 1'7 of the fly opening and the crotch 14 of thegarment where the pieces 10 and 11 are seamed together by stitching 18.

The short length of stitching 18 appears in Fig. l, as aligned with thefly opening 16, and in fact is, when the garment is worn. However, itwill be noted from Figs. 2 and 3 that as the goods is cut, the edge ofeach piece 10, 11, which is sewn by the stitching 18 is at aconsiderable angle to the line of fly, when the piece is laid flat. Thestitching 18 forms something of a bottom limit 100 beyond which thecrotch 17 of the fly could not be dropped without having to complicatethe fly opening and its facing by angularly offsetting it.

The fly or facing 19 for the fly opening 16 is formed from a strip offabric material folded longitudinally with the opposed raw edges of itsinner and outer plies 20 and 21 turned inwardly as shown in Fig. 5.One-half of the facing 19 is secured to the front edge of the right nobody piece 10 by a line 0! Stitchin 22. th raw edge of the piece 10being secured between the inturned edges of the plies 21 and 20.

' The other half of the facing 19 is secured to the edge of the leftbody piece 11. The piece 11 extends on the outside of the two plies 20and 21 of the facing and is turned backwardly and engaged between theinturned edges of the plies 20 and 21, being stitched down by a line ofstitching 23 forming a continuation of the stitching 22. The opposite orfolded edge of the facing 19 is stitched down to the piece 11 by a lineof stitching 24. This stitching, as will later be explained, is ofparticular importance in our construction. If preferred, the stitching24 may extend as indicated at 24 along the folded edge of the first halfof the facing 19. The extension 24' of this stitching, however, wouldextend only through the plies 20 and 21 of the facing and wouldnotextend through either of the body pieces.

At the crotch or fold of the fly opening 16 the facing is sewn to theleft body piece 11 by a transverse line of stitching 25. Both ends ofthe facing 19 extend upwardly to the upper edges of the body pieces 10.and 11 respectively where they are anchored to the rear waist bands 26.

As previously explained, we have found that the tearing of underwear atthe crotch of the fly opening is not the result of the strains to whichits tearing is usually attributed, such as an end-to-end strainlongitudinally of the fly facing, an extreme swinging of the leg such asin kicking a football, or a transverse thigh-tothigh strain. To thecontrary, we have found that the strains which result in a tearing atthe crotch of the fly opening are occasioned by a knee-to-knee strainwhen the garment has been dropped to the region of the knee. When inthis position, as indicated in Fig. 6, the strain may be considered asextending between the left and right hip points, that is, from the leftcenter of the waist band to the right center of the waist hand. If thefLv opening were buttoned up as in Fig. 1, the line of strain betweenthe two hip points would of course follow along the front waist bands.But when the fly opening is not buttoned, as in the circumstances ofFig. 6, it assumes a line of strain as a straight line 27 passingthrough the crotch of the fly opening. The two triangular portionsrepresented by the upper ends of the button and button-hole fliesrespectively then become mere inert flaps. In

6, for the sake of clarity, these flaps are shown smoothed out into avertical plane.

This knee-to-knee strain is developed when the garment is in theposition described and the wear+ er lets the knees spread apart, oftenunconsciously developing a very great strain along the line 27. It willbe seen from Fig. 6 that the line 2'7 intersects the center line 28 ofthe fly facing 28 at an angle of about 45 degrees. The entirekneeto-knee strain which can be considered as concentrated along theline 27 has to be transferred from the piece 10 to the piece 11, or viceversa, through the facing 19 at the crotch 17 of the fly opening. Thatthis is true can be seen from the fact that except for the shortstitching 18, which comes below the line of strain 27, the piece 10 isnot directly sewn or secured to the piece 11, but

is'co'nnected onlythrough the intermediary of the facing 19.

A'mere continuous facing along the fly opening would not successfullyeffect the transfer of strain along this opening without danger oftearin: because the strain is not parallel with the some of the strainwould be distributed across facing 19. Instead it is at a considerableangle to it. Itis important to the most successful withstanding of thisknee-to-knee strain that in addition to the continuity of the facing 19past the crotch 17 of the fly opening, the strain concentrated along theline 27 be transferred from the piece 10 to the facing on one side ofthe crotch 17 and then, on the other side of the crotch, beretransferred from the facing to the .piece 11, in such a manner as tominimize the danger of concentrating the strain to a degree where itwill tear the stitching.

One helpful factor in carrying out this functionis the line of stitching24 which secures one edge of the folded facing 19 to the body piece 11.Were it not for this line of stitching practically the entire strainwould be concentrated at the point 25' at one end of the transversestitching 25 across the crotch of the fly opening, although theremainder of the length of the transverse stitching 25. By having thestitching 24 include the piece 11, we distribute the strain over thefull length of the transverse stitching 25, and also over a considerablelength of the stitching 24 from the crotch 17 of the fly openingupwardly or outwardly in a direction toward the waist band of the bodypiece 11,--a region substantially as embraced by the bracket 29.

This distribution over the region 29 of the stitching 24 is furtheraided by the fact that the line 27 of strain is at substantially 45degrees to the center line 28 of the facing. Theocenter line of the flyis along the maximum bias of the goods. This supplies the stretch orresiliency which further distributes the strain along the region 29 andespecially avoids a, dangerous concentration of the strain at theprecise point where the line 27 intersects the stitching 24.

On the other side of the crotch of the fly opening the strain istransferred from the body piece 10 to the fly facing 19 over adistributed region of the stitching 22. This minimizes the regions ofconcentrated strain which might result in tear. Also, the upper end ofthe short line of stitching 18 from the crotch of the fly opening to thecrotch 14 of the garment itself is relieved. The resiliency afforded bythe strain coming along the bias of the goods is a further aid.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a pair of pants, the combination of right hand and left handpieces of material shaped to 130 form a trunk and legs, each of saidpieces having a portion of its opposite edges secured together to formthe legs, and the adjacent edges of said pieces being secured togetheralong a line extending from the crotch up the back of the pants to 5form the trunk, with means for detachably securing the adjacent frontedges of the right hand and left hand pieces together, a facing stripfor said adjacent front edges. comprising a continuous piece of materialextending down one of said 140 adjacent front edges and secured theretoand folded up at the bottom of the fly and extending up the other ofsaid adjacent front edges and secured thereto, whereby ripping of theseam at the base of the fly is prevented, said facing strip 145comprising a piece folded back on itself to form a double layer, andsaid strip having a transverse line of stitching at the base of the fiyand the strip overlying the inner side of the fly and having both edgesstitched to that portion of the 50 pants forming the inner side of thefly to resist ripping by diagonal strains.

2. A pair of pants comprising a back portion, a left front portion, aright front portion, a right leg portion and a left leg portion, theportions forming a crotch, a fly opening between the right and left sideportions extending downwardly from the waist to a point above thecrotch, a seam joining said front portions from said point down to thecrotch, said edge of one front portion constituting the inner flap ofthe fly opening and the said edge of the other front portionconstituting the outer fiapof the fly opening, and a facing for the flyopening comprising a continuous strip of fabric folded longitudinallyback upon itself to form a double ply with a folded edge, the double plyfacing being folded transversely, one arm of the facing being stitchedalong its edge opposite the said folded edge to the edge of the innerflap and the other arm being stitched along both its folded and itsopposite edges to the outer flap to overlap the outer flap adjacent itsedge, the facing also being stitched along said transverse fold to theouter flap.

3. The combination with a pair of pants comprising a back portion, aleft front portion, a. right front portion, a right leg portion and aleft leg portion, and including a crotch, of a fly opening between theright and left side portions extending downwardly from the waist, saidedge of one front portion constituting the inner flap of the fly openingand the said edge of the other front portion constituting the outer flapof the fly opening, and a facing for the fly opening comprising acontinuous strip of fabric folded transversely, one arm of the facingbeing stitched to the edge of the inner flap along the edge of thefacing adjacent the field of the inner front flap and the other arm ofthe facing being stitched to the outer flap along the opposite edge ofthe facing, and the facing being stitched along its transverse fold tothe outer flap.

JOSEPH K. I-IEYMAN. ALFRED F. WENZEL.

